And That's What Love Is
by Im-just-peachy
Summary: This was what true happiness, true love, was. It was the feeling of being completely free with the people who let you. They are a family. What some might say is a mismatched, hodge-podge group of young adults, is really a network of best friends that genuinely love and care for each other. When one is hurting, they all are hurting. And that is what love is.LAURWALK. BREREDITH. J/J.


There they all sat. The team was gathered in Jaime's apartment; Dylan, Julia, Jaime, Joey, Joe Moses, Meredith, Brian, Joe Walker, and Lauren; each sitting on the floor in a circle with everyone in view; each of them staring each other down. Who would be the first to crack?

It all started when Joe Walker claimed that Lauren would not be able to stay up past two hours of HMB's final show, like expected the two bickered for a few hours over that bold statment, Lauren asserted that it was obviously Brian who would pass out of exhaustion first. Soon it sparked a full on debate; who could go the longest without sleep?

And that brought them to now. All waiting patiently for one of the friends to fall asleep, praying that it wasn't themselves. Then Meredith pulled her bongo drums out from behind her back, and she started a simple beat, hoping that the music would cause drowsiness for one of her friends, and keep her awake. After a few seconds of just watching her, Joe Moses burst into song;

**Give me a second I,  
I need to get my story straight  
My friends are in the bathroom getting higher than the Empire State…**

The group of friends laughed because they saw Joey return from the bathroom, and Dylan, jokingly, asked him if he was on drugs. And as Walker sang the next couple of lines, Brian hurried over to his backpack and pulled out his iPhone. Plugging it into the speakers that rested on a table against the wall, he began playing "We Are Young", thus allowing Meredith put the tiny drums away, and participate.

**My lover she's waiting for me just across the bar  
My seat's been taken by some sunglasses asking bout a scar, and…**

Everyone but Walker and Lauren hid secret grins, glancing around the room only to see that everyone else had, indeed, noticed the way Joe had sang that perticular line to smallest of the group. Lauren, oblivious to her friends' smirks, merely smiled and laughed along at the group's impromptu concert.

Jaime and Meredith were the next ones to sing, their voices blending together in near perfect harmony.

**I know I gave it to you months ago  
I know you're trying to forget  
But between the drinks and subtle things  
The holes in my apologies, you know  
I'm trying hard to take it back.**

Everyone laughed at Jaime's dramatic expressions, and they all looked expectantly at Julia knowing she would be the first to sing the next line. She rolled her eyes and pulled her knees up to her chest.

**So if by the time the bar closes  
And you feel like falling down  
I'll carry you home…**

Meredith, Joey, Jaime, Moses, and Walker all hoped onto their feet and began dancing along to the sound of everyone singing the chorus. Jaime walked over to Brian and pulled him onto his feet, Dylan and Walker both scooped up Lauren, who now sat between them, in both their arms as if it were a throne. Joey was spinning Meredith around the room, Julia was pulling Joe Moses down from where he was dancing on the table.

**Tonight  
We are young  
So let's set the world on fire  
We can burn brighter than the sun  
Tonight  
We are young  
So let's set the world on fire  
We can burn brighter than the sun**

All the boys kept singing, the five of them placing the girls side by side on the couch, and each of them standing in front of one of the girls.

**Now I know that I'm not  
All that you got  
I guess that I, I just thought  
Maybe we could find new ways to fall apart**

The girls roared with laughter at the boys little choreographed shrug and pleading expressions, before Julia shushed the men, and the girls took up the next few lines.

**But our friends are back  
So let's raise a toast  
'Cause I found someone to carry me home**

By this time the gang was all on their feet again jumping and dancing around the cramped living room. Lauren, with tears cascading down her cheeks from laughing so hard, nearly took a tumble into the coffee table before Walker caught her around the waist. Julia stood in the doorway to the kitchen sipping on a glass of water and watching over her friends. Jaime and Meredith were hip-bumping each other, and Joey and Lauren were trying to work out what seemed to be a sort of complex dance move.

**Tonight  
We are young  
So let's set the world on fire  
We can burn brighter than the sun**

Tonight  
We are young  
So let's set the world on fire  
We can burn brighter than the sun

Joey and Jaime staked claim on the next verse, the remaining StarKids singing the various 'NaNaNa's.

**Carry me home tonight (Nananananana)  
Just carry me home tonight (Nananananana)  
Carry me home tonight (Nananananana)  
Just carry me home tonight (Nananananana)**

Lauren jumped up onto the couch and sang next, her soprano voice not completely in pitch due to her suppressed laughter, but was still remarkably strong from a long day of Holy Musical B tman, and exhaustion.

**The moon is on my side  
I have no reason to run  
So will someone come and carry me home tonight**

Dylan and Joey took the small brunette's hand and pulled her down from her cushiony stage. Grin in place, Dylan slung his toned arm over her shoulders and pulled her into his side, before singing the next verse.

**The angels never arrived  
But I can hear the choir  
So will someone come and carry me home**

Now the entirety of the group held no reserves, each laughing and joking and dancing with each other, not bothering to try and sound in tone or in pitch, each just having a good time before exhaustion overcame all of them.

**Tonight  
We are young  
So let's set the world on fire  
We can burn brighter than the sun**

Now the group began to settle down, Lauren clambered off of JoMo's back, Brian stopped trying to knock Meredith over, and Walker stopped his Michael Jackson imitation.

The group all stood in a circle, not much different than the one they had been sitting in before. Joe Moses, Dylan, and Julia all huddled together, some arms linked, others resting on their neighbor's shoulder. In true Jaime Lyn Beatty fashion, Jaime wrapped Joey up into a snug hug, holding each other tightly. Meredith rested her head on Brian shoulder, their fingers entwined. And Lauren stood with her back resting against Walker, his arms wrapped around her waist, and her own smaller hands holding onto his strong arms. She leaned her head back against his chest, and he rested his chin onto her soft brown hair.

**Tonight  
We are young  
So let's set the world on fire  
We can burn brighter than the sun**

This was what true happiness, true love, was. It was the feeling of being completely free with the people who let you. They are a family. What some might say is a mismatched, hodge-podge group of young adults, is really a network of best friends that genuinely love and care for eachother. When one is hurting, they all are hurting. And that is what love is.

Joey began the final verse,

**So if by the time the bar closes  
And you feel like falling down**

Jaime harmonizing that last line, loosened their hug, but didn't let go. When the pair stopped singing, Lauren was left to sing the final line of the song,

**I'll carry you home tonight.**

Exactly sixteen minutes later, the unconventional family lay sprawled all over the room, each fast asleep; however, it was Dylan who ended up $30 dollars richer the next morning, for correctly guessing that, despite not even being in the show, Joe Moses would be the first to fall asleep that night.


End file.
